After playing a handful of matches alongside his son Rivaldinho for Mogi Mirim this season in Brazil’s Série C — they were in Serie A as a 20-year-old in 1992 — he’s decided to step away.

“With tears in my eyes today I would like to thank God, my family and all the support, the affection that I received during those 24 years as a player,” he said in a statement on social networking site Instagram.

“I have to thank the lovely career I have built over these years. There were many obstacles, challenges, waivers, longings, disappointments, but there were much greater joys, achievements, growth, change.”

His rags-to-riches story has been an inspiration to many, escaping a malnourished childhood to achieve, well, all listed above.